Milam Sheet Metal shop photos

[mostrich]

Gary, thank you so much for sharing your story with us! I'm a metalworker like you and I can really appreciate those tales and pictures. The sheet metal course I had as part of my apprenticeship was one of the hardest. But I learned a lot and at the end I was able to enjoy it a bit.
It's a great feeling to know that you can do something useful with your hands!

[Stuart]

Thank you Stuart! I would love to hear more about that aircraft re-skinning. Did you work long in that field?

Before I started working in manufacturing and Quality, I spent 3 years doing a aerospace engineering course at college, and then 7 years off and on as an Aircraft Engineer - although, alas I never had the chance to get my engineering licence (which would have enabled me to certify aircraft fit for flight), which is part of the reason why I gave it up and moved on.

Unfortunately I haven't got any photos of that part of my life, but I worked mainly on GA stuff - Cessnas, Pipers, Beechcraft etc - the biggest things being Cessna Golden Eagles and Brittan-Norman Islanders. I did plenty of small scale sheet metal work, mainly removing damaged panels and riveting in new ones, adding strengthening parts as part of an AD etc. The biggest job we had was a single engine Piper Comanche (like the one below), that did a wheels up landing on the airfield (due to the gear being damaged on a grass strip during a previous touch and go). It did major damage to the wing, and we had to remove all the skins back down to the main spar and ribs and rebuild. Because it was an old aircraft it was a very interesting challenge.



Nothing on the scale you've done though - I really enjoyed working with metal and making stuff, its really rewarding. I do wish to some extent I'd stayed in the game, but hey-ho, you take what life throws at you. Interestingly, before I met my wife my long-term plan was to move to the USA and get my A&P. I really fancied working on Floatplanes and such like.

[Tojo72]

Nice stuff Gary

[Gary Brantley]

Kari, Torben, Stuart and Tony, thanks for stopping in and commenting! I'm glad you found this old stuff interesting. There have been times when I felt I had wasted all those years in that shop. My wife and I struggled with money back then and after 1980, had one and then two kids to raise. I knew I could've traveled somewhere else to make higher wages, but we were close to our families here and loved the small-town (6K pop) life. Now I look back with a different perspective and see that it was also a rich learning experience.

One of the coolest thing about the job was the history behind the work and the continuity of the craft/trade. Most of the techniques and methods we used had been developed long before any of us in that shop were born. I suspect the craftsmen who installed the original terne-metal standing seam roofs over Thomas Jefferson's Monticello could've walked onto any job we did with complete familiarity and fall right into step with us. As a lifelong history nerd, that aspect had great appeal to me.

When Charles decided to retire and sell the shop, I was tempted to look into it. Not so much as a job but just to acquire the tools and machinery. In several of my photos, one can see a large stencil hanging on the wall. It has hand-cut lettering that reads Milam Sheet Metal Shop, Cameron Texas. The former owner, Mr. Valka, had cut those out many years ago and would use the stencil to paint that logo on cisterns. It was a cheap form of advertisement. After I had helped build several of those big cisterns, I noted that we never used the stencil and asked my boss why? Charles relied that he was afraid someone would see it and order more. He then asked if I enjoyed building them. Of course, he already knew the answer; it was extremely labor-intensive work and took up an entire work day for us. When I was managing the shop in his absence and folks came in to inquire about having one built and asked the price, I would try hard to accentuate the amount...FIVE Hundred dollars!! (or whatever it was at that time). Hey, no need to encourage them! I was the one who had hammer-riveted all the seams on the side and bottom and often hammered the ring sections together as well. One's arm would get numb from that exertion!

I've been in contact with the current owner of the building (not in use at the present) about obtaining that stencil for it's history and my memories.

Torben and Stuart, it's very interesting that we share these experiences. Torben, what sort of metal work is it that you do? Stuart, I once considered a course at a technical college in Waco that sounds very like what you did. It sounds like fun to me. I'm sorry that I can't see your pic for some reason.

Again, thanks for all your interest!

[Stuart]

That would be cool if you could get that stencil!

No worries Gary, it was only a pic I pulled off the internet of a Piper Comanche. I don't know what level you'd call the college I went to, it wasn't like a US college were you get a degree - college over here is what you between leaving school here at 16 and going to University, but it was fun.

[Medicman71]

Very cool Gary! That had to have been hard and hot work!

[mostrich]

Torben, what sort of metal work is it that you do?

I've made my apprenticeship in a factory that developes and constructs machines for the fabrication of cigarettes. One of our biggest customer was Philip Morris. There's still a plant in Richmond, Virginia to provide technical services.
After getting my certificate I worked there (Hamburg, Germany) for two more years and was responsible for commissioning prototypes and also standard assembly work. After some time I got bored and studied mechanical engineering. I never was a good student but the knowledge I collected there helped me for a second career as a laboratory engineer in an environmental lab. Started there 2012 as a test engineer and worked my lazy a$$ up to the site manager that I am today. Here's the link to our website if someone's interested (that bloke on the salt spray chamber is me):
https://paconsult.de/environmental-simulation/?lang=en

[Gary Brantley]

Very cool Gary! That had to have been hard and hot work!

Glad you enjoyed that Mike! Yes, it was hot work in the summer and cold in the winter, lol. That old tin shop, with tin walls and roof did get uncomfortable at times. We used a wood stove for heat most of the time but you had to be close to it for any relief. You can see a couple chairs in the photo of that stove. I spent some time on one of those, shooting the sh*t with the boss, and whomever else dropped by! If we had a big project going inside, we had a diesel-fueled "top-hat" heater we could fire up. Man, even in freezing weather, that thing would have you down to shirt sleeves in no time. The trade-off was a nose full of oily boogers from the sooty old thing.

Here's a pic off the 'net of the type of oil-fired heater we sometimes used:



In the summer, we had two or three big fans to blow the hot air around. In his later years in the shop long after I left, Charles' children gave him a portable water-cooled fan that sort of mimicked a lil' a/c. That would've been nice to have while I was there. But hey, I was young and healthy and working in the heat, and cold too, was just part of the deal. Yes, some of it like roofing and building those cisterns was d*mned hard.

[Gary Brantley]

Torben, what sort of metal work is it that you do?

I've made my apprenticeship in a factory that developes and constructs machines for the fabrication of cigarettes. One of our biggest customer was Philip Morris. There's still a plant in Richmond, Virginia to provide technical services.
After getting my certificate I worked there (Hamburg, Germany) for two more years and was responsible for commissioning prototypes and also standard assembly work. After some time I got bored and studied mechanical engineering. I never was a good student but the knowledge I collected there helped me for a second career as a laboratory engineer in an environmental lab. Started there 2012 as a test engineer and worked my lazy a$$ up to the site manager that I am today. Here's the link to our website if someone's interested (that bloke on the salt spray chamber is me):
https://paconsult.de/environmental-simulation/?lang=en

Very interesting indeed Torben! I'd say you were quite a talented chap. It would require some real smarts for any of that work! Thanks for the link too; I enjoyed looking around there.

[mostrich]

Thank you Gary. You're too kind. When it comes to talent I'm sure you'd beat me on any day. Working in a shop like that with rather basic equipment and tools (judging from today's standards, of course) demands a real craftsman.